For the best chance of retaining a library for the community, FKRL are supporting the application in the following way by stating:
Support planning application 14/0846
I give my support re Planning Application 14/0846:
1. For D1 community library and space
2. For FKRL to be tenants of the space
You can do the same and add your own words.

3. We have had emails of support from councillors from all three wards surrounding the library, Brondesbury, Kensal Green and Queens Park. Thank you to all those councillors for your support.
We have had a further email of support from Maggie Gee and her husband Nick Rankin who earlier in the week sent a statement of support. Both supporters and campaigners for the library since 1988. Thank you both for keeping Kensal Rise in your hearts.

4. We have also had support from Marika Giles Samson who some of you may remember was a very active campaigner until her move to Canada - and here is an excerpt:

Does anyone genuinely believe that FKRL has not done all that they have other than for the benefit of the community that they love? Does anyone really think that the decision that we are asked to support is motivated by anything other than a genuine belief that it is in the best interest of the community? As far as I am concerned, the trustees of FKRL and the members of the campaign have earned all the credibility that they need to make this decision on the community’s behalf. We have no reason not to trust them, and every reason to support them.

Marika Giles Samson

Montréal, Canada

Formerly of 35 Bathust Gardens

5. Yes we have had to compromise but we are hoping that we will manage to have 2/3 of the ground floor (which is about 66% of the previous library space for those of you that like figures).

6. Looking forward to the day when our energies can go into planning an actual library and community space.

Regards and many thanks to the most important support of all - the residents of Kensal Rise and Kensal Green.

This is just one of nearly 90,000 newsreel films, recently uploaded to YouTube by British Pathé. It shows the aftermath of a V1 bomb attack in Walthamstow, 1944. This one is silent, unlike most of the films (I think).

I want to make this quick, so I'm only going to use round figures here. The accounts are submitted in detail to the IRS as part of my trading company Object Tree Ltd.

The entry fee was £6 this year and all went through Submittable .com, which takes about a dollar per entry. I created the Southernmost Point poetry collection out of the proceeds of the competition, as well as the competition anthology New Short Stories 8. There were 381 entries, resulting in an income of just under £2,000 plus sales of books at the event of £70. Out of that take cash prizes £600, and two books including copies for authors and contributors, which came out at approx £400 each, all told. That's £1400 roughly accounted for. I also paid for my web server, which hosts the websites for Willesden Herald and New Short Stories, out of the money; that's another £270 (Webfusion VPS starter pack annual price). That leaves us with £400. The venue was £45, wine/water/nibbles £65, leaving us with £290. Mugs and p&p take us down to about £200. Although we're in the black this year, this can be balanced against losses in previous years, I think. Only ever wanted to break even and it appears I have done so, or a little better. So that's that. :)

P.S. The accounts for 2012-13 were published in updates under the Kickstarter book project* for that year. Actually I see we were in the black then as well. So that's good. I've spent a fair bit on software that I use and plugins for the WordPress site, which I probably haven't counted, so there's not a lot in it either way. For example I use three plugins from WooCommerce to run the online bookshop and they cost about £20 each. Etc. You can find other previous years' accounts by clicking the accounts tag.

Here is why we need the money and for what it will be used. First of all a summary and then the detail. I should explain that even though we only really need £400, to get that £400 we have to raise £800 here to cover the cost of the rewards, i.e. the books and mugs, plus shipping. What will we do with the £400? It splits into about £200 to publish the book and £200 to fund the authors' five copies each. That's the summary, now for the detail.

Background 1, entry fees: We had 340 entries this year, at £3.00 making a total of £1020. Less 10% PayPal commission, that left £918. Less prizes, £600, left £318. [Correction 30/3/2013: 340 - 13 unpaid = 327 @ £3 making £981 - 10% = £883, less prizes £600 leaving £283.]

Background 2, website: There were a few incidental expenses but the main other one was when the website had to move to a new server and I paid a year in advance to get the cheaper rate. Even if we hadn't moved, the cost would have been about the same, but we had to "ante up". With the new server comes the latest version of PHP, enabling the rebuilt WordPress-based New Short Stories website. That took away another £200. Together with other incidental expenses - the prize mug etc, somehow or another we are now down to under £100 in the kitty. [Correction 30/3/2013: Have found the difference in 13 unpaid entries (see above). Kitty actually down to under £50.]

To publish the book is not all that expensive, in fact £200 covers what we do, (we set it up for print on demand), but there is also the small matter of 50 copies to send out, five to each of the contributors to the book, plus three more due to friends for helping with the competition. Now that plus postage eats up about £5.50 per book, at cost. There's £290+ right there.

A rough calculation shows that about £640 + £50 for books for the launch (if and when - see below) has been used out of £830 that I got from Kickstarter after they took their commission. All the figures here are approximate. I just want to get an overview on here, as it makes me feel better about it. It's a big responsibility.

The way I get that total is as follows (all approximate figures, remember): Contributor, designer and judge copies (total 53): £220. Mugs (turned out expensive at about £15 including postage) 12 x 15: £180. Book setup and proof: £100. Individual books x 27 for backers, including postage to me and onward postage from here (very approx. - might be more after some of the distant addresses): £140.

Great website. I never thought I'd find a website that appreciated the strange intensity of Willesden sunsets. It sounds ridiculous to say you don't see them anywhere else - but it's true isn't it?
- Zadie Smith (comments)

Despite your outrageous heightism, I would be very happy to take up your case with the Council...
- The Rt. Hon. Sarah Teather MP, Brent East
(Dear Feargal)

As you know yourself, the quest for form - the search for the voice and scale necessary to what one wishes to say
- is the primary effort of writing. This may lead one into novel writing at one point, and into the writing of sonnets later on
- rather as Beethoven confined himself almost exclusively to the string quartet after finishing the Op 125 symphony.
- Rana Dasgupta (Dear Feargal)

a note from Red Woodward

We have asked our columnists time and again only to post stories that are not not untrue, but frankly it would be easier to train monkeys. Please tell us if we have inadvertently hit on something not not true, and we will uncorrect it. (Ed.)

the wisdom of Red Woodward

"Never trust anybody honest."

"This whole everybody dying malarkey has got beyond a joke."

"One of these days you'll hear that I died. That's what I'll miss, hearing all the news."

"What a person says a lot about says a lot about a person."

"Minimalism is the biggest load of crap ever."

"There's no such thing as waiting. You are either doing something useful or you are doing something useless."

Except for permission to include in the Willesden Herald online or other media editions, contributors retain copyright and all other rights on their letters and submissions. Please include any link or email address in your signature line, if you want it published.